Clara Daguin

The Augmented Gesture. 

From the Embroidery Needle to the Neural Stitch: A Cross-Disciplinary Study of Precision and Craft

This residency comes at a pivotal moment for the Métiers d’Art: the mechanical gesture is being redefined by Artificial Intelligence with the emergence of Brain-Machine Interfaces (BMIs) in the United States—specifically those utilizing robotic “sewing machines” to insert electrodes into the brain. I believe that for embroidery to remain a living craft, it must engage with the most advanced needles of our time—those found in neuro-robotics.

Traditionally, a suture is meant to be static—it holds things together until they heal. In the age of AI, the thread is “alive” with data. My work has always been about invisible signals. This residency is the logical next step: moving from signals on the skin to signals in the mind. How do we visualize a stitch that isn’t just a line on a garment, but a highway for thoughts? Is it possible to imagine a shift from “Body as Canvas” to “Brain as Controller”: a garment where the light patterns aren’t just reflecting your pulse or movement, but are being intentionally “painted” by your thoughts via a Brain-Machine Interface?

Through the study of these developing technologies, I seek to understand how a manual craft like sewing is being transformed into an almost transhumanist tool. I intend to produce a visual manifesto titled Le Geste Augmenté. This will demonstrate how the Métiers d’Art are not static traditions but are the very foundation upon which our future technological interfaces are being built.

While Europe excels in the preservation of savoir-faire, the United States is the theater where the post-human body is being designed. California is a premier location for this residency because it functions as the global capital of human-machine performance.

While Silicon Valley builds the back-end of AI, LA is where that technology is applied directly to the entertainment, luxury wellness, and transhumanist industries. Los Angeles offers a unique convergence: the high-precision craft of Hollywood’s costume legacy and the pioneering brain-machine interface (BMI) research at UCLA and USC. My project necessitates immersion in these American labs to observe a new kind of ’embroidery’: the surgical, AI-guided stitching of neural threads. I am not seeking to replace the hand, but to understand how the artisan’s hand has inspired algorithmic precision.

This residency represents a critical evolution in my practice. Having previously collaborated with Google and created custom work for exhibitions and brands, I have proven that interactive textiles can bridge the digital and physical. However, this stay will allow me to transition from ‘wearable tech’ to ‘cognitive craft.’ I intend to establish a dialogue with institutions, companies, and local communities which will provide the philosophical soil and technical expertise needed for this critical inquiry. Some examples are The USC Brain and Creativity Institute (BCI), biohackers who are early adopters of AI-integrated implants and wearables, the wellness and transhumanist communities, and companies such as Neuralink who are actively testing neurosurgical techniques.

I aim to return to France with a renewed vocabulary of gestures that reflect our era’s complexity.